Brace Face
by Goldengirlie
Summary: or the " we're both awkward teens with braces and this is our first kiss but our braces got tangled this so embarrassing" AU. (written by somebody who's never had braces in her life, but screw it). ONE SHOT unless you ask for an epilogue.
1. Chapter 1

Brace Face

Percy's POV

I close my slightly sweaty palm over the golden door knob. I'm slightly nervous, since it's our first group sleepover since I realized I have a crush on my best friend. I'm not gay, my best friend is the coolest girl in the world. Her name is Annabeth Chase, and she has curly blonde hair, stainless steel colored grey eyes, and silvery braces. Running my tongue over the metal wires in my mouth, I turn the knob.

"Hey Perce! Did you finally get a new color?" Annabeth says, asking about my recent orthodontist appointment.

"Nope! I went with blue yet again. Is that really a surprise?" I say, plopping down next to her.

"Not at all," Annabeth says, rolling her eyes.

"So guys, we're playing seven minutes in heaven! I'm drawing names out of a bowl!" Thalia says, snickering as the blood rushes from my face.

"Why Thalia?" Piper groans.

"Because it's my house McLean," Thalia says, fishing around the bowl.

"Chase and Jackson, You're first. We will be barricading you in that bedroom to my right for 7 minutes. Do what you want," Thalia says, shoving us into the room. The door clicks shut behind us, and we're trapped.

"Now what?" Annabeth whispers.

"I don't hear smooching," Thalia warns through the door.

I groan, and bury my face in my hands.

"We're gonna have to do this, aren't we?" I whisper.

Annabeth nods.

"Let's do it, I guess," She says, leaning in.

I don't know how long we sat on the bed kissing, but I do know that it felt like millions of sparks were traveling through my lips, all the way through my toes. When I try to pull away, I feel the dreaded tugging feeling on my teeth. _Uh Oh_.

"I think we're stuck," I say, trying to untangle myself from Annabeth's teeth.

"You don't mean?" Annabeth says, her grey eyes widening in fear.

"Uh Huh. our braces are stuck together," I say, panicking.

"How much longer are we in here?" Annabeth shouts to Thalia.

"Three Minutes!" Jason screams.

"We've got three minutes to untangle ourselves from this mess." Annabeth says, dragging us over to a mirror.

"Your front right bracket is hooked under my wire. Try crouching," I say, looking at our reflections out of the corner of my 've made pretty good time. In fact, we have a lot of our teeth untangled, with under one minute left.

"Your bottom left tooth is attached to my bottom right. You move down and right while I move down and left," Annabeth says.

Thalia opens the door.

"Hey guys- WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" She screams. All of our friends run in.

"Are your braces tangled? But that means… OH MY GODS!" Piper shrieks.

Leo comes over and inspects our braces.

"This could take a while," he says, pulling out some tools.

Jason is on the floor, tears streaming down his face as he laughs.

Hazel and Frank come in, carrying two paper bags.

"Sorry we're late… if it helps, Grammy Zhang bought takeout for you guys- what did we miss?" Hazel says.

Frank just stares awkwardly at his shoes. The room is silent except for the faint scraping sounds coming from our braces as Leo tries to untangle them.

"Done!" he says,

"We're never living this down are we?" I ask, looking down at Annabeth.

"Nope."

"Never"

"Your kids will be hearing this story."

"Uh Uh"

I groan and drag Annabeth out of the room.

"Listen. I vote we never speak of this again, capische?" Annabeth says.

I nod.

Everyone except for me and Annabeth has fallen asleep. She leans onto my shoulder, staring at the TV.

"Hey, Wise Girl? I know this might not be the best time to say this, given all that's happened today, but I kinda sorta have a crush on you. " I whisper.

"Finally! I thought i was going to have to make the first move!" she whispers, staring up at me.

"Wanna go out sometime?" I whisper.

"Yeah. but this time, how about we don't kiss until we have our braces off?" she says.

"Deal." I say, chuckling.


	2. Epilogue

Epilogue: 30 years later.

Percy's POV

It's our 20th wedding anniversary, and I couldn't be happier with how things turned out for us. I flip through the photo album my mom gave us as a wedding present, laughing as I remember all the embarrassing stuff Annabeth and I did. I'm shaken out of my reverie by the ringing doorbell.

"Auntie Piper! Uncle Jason!" my 8 year old daughter screams, throwing herself into their arms.

"Heya Sophia! Where's your older brother?" Jason asks.

"Dylan's in his room," she says, smiling wide, showing off the gap in her smile. She'll need braces too. Just like everyone else in this family did.

Thalia walks in, with the rest of our friends trailing behind. Hazel and Frank's 8 year old son grabs onto Piper and Jason's six year old little girl.

"Sammy! Be careful with Holly!" Annabeth calls, entering the room.

"Celine, go hang out with Dylan. He's upstairs," Jason says, directing his 15 year old daughter up the stairs to my son's room.

"So let's get started. Kids! Come down for this part! Then you can go back upstairs," Leo shouts.

Sophia gets into the room first, with her curly black hair streaming behind her. Then comes Sammy, his golden brown eyes scanning the room before he jogs over to Sophia. Little Holly skips in, playing with her chestnut colored pigtails. Dylan and Celine sneak in last. I ruffle his messy blonde hair, and watch as his green eyes flick to Celine Grace before he sits on the couch. Celine follows, nervously twisting a lock of her light brown hair around her finger.

"You get to watch us give your parents celebratory gifts!" Hazel chirps, passing Annabeth a bag.

"Oh my Gods guys! This thing's amazing! Thank you!" Annabeth says, pulling a crystal glassware set out.

Piper hands me a box. And as I open it, I can't help but laugh.

"Seriously? Annabeth's bridal bouquet? I can't believe you still have this thing!" I say, still chuckling.

"Hey, it worked didn't it? I mean, Jason and I were the next ones to get married," Piper says.

"True," Annabeth says, opening Leo's present.

"Really? You got us a week long trip to Montauk? Thanks Man!" I say.

"Last up, Thalia." Annabeth says, tearing into the package.

"Is this a picture of the night we got together? How'd you get this Thalia?"

I ask. She shrugs in response.

"Well, I guess the kids can go back to what they were doing," I say.

The kids all sprint back up the stairs as the 8 adults pore through some old photo albums.

"Is that?" Annabeth asks, pointing towards a picture in an album. I look closer. It's a teen girl with long blonde curls and silver braces desperately trying to untangle herself from a boy with shaggy black hair and blue braces. Underneath it, in Thalia's spiky handwriting it says our names and the date. We must have been about fifteen years old at the time, the same age as Dylan and Celine.

"Mommy! Daddy! Come quick! Celine and Dylan got their braces tangled!" I hear Sophia shout. I sneak one last glance at the picture before sneaking up the stairs, with a camera in one hand and Annabeth's fingers entwined with mine. I open up his door and snap a few pictures of my son trying to untangle the metal in their mouths. Within about 5 minutes of prying, the two of them were freed. Soon after, everyone headed home, as most of our kids are very young. Late that night, when Sophia and Dylan are asleep, Annabeth and I tiptoe down the stairs, and stare at that picture, comparing it to the ones we took. Looking down at the album, we paste the picture of Dylan and Celine next to the one of Annabeth and I. uncapping a sharpie, Annabeth writes ' _like father, like son_ '.

"Some things never change, Percy. Some things just never change." Annabeth whispers.


End file.
